The "Last Trip"

So the "step" family and I travelled to the Big Island of Hawaii yesterday. The trip was a must as the oldest of Marc's daughters will be in university next year and I remember how that changed my life. This essentially could be the last time the four of us are ever able to travel together.

In my experience, once I headed off to university that spelled the end of me being present for virtually any significant event with my parents. Mind you I could have attended university much closer to home (a distance of 280 miles does put a bit of a crimp on things) but I knew that I needed to "get away" so I would grow as an adult. I did return home for extended breaks and summer vacations but starting with the summer break between third and fourth years my summer job was in NW Quebec and the writing was on the wall.

Once I began university I have never celebrated a birthday with my parents, and after third year I never spent another summer at home with them. Work in the mineral exploration field necessitates maximizing field time when the weather conditions are best. And once I finished university I have only spent one Christmas with my parents - and that was when they came out to British Columbia in 1981 and I travelled down from Jasper.

I'm not sure the girls realize the significance of this trip. We have mentioned that this is likely the last opportunity for the four of us to travel somewhere together but they are young and the young typically don't realize the significance of something until many years later. This time they will do their first scuba dive and we plan to again travel to the southeast end of the island to again immerse ourselves in the Kilauea experience (mind you that may be more for me than anyone else).

Now if we could just get a rental car!